Putting Our Grandmothers on the Page: Poetry, Prose & Persona // with Kelly DuMar

In writing about grandmothers, we discover longings, unpack family secrets, break cultural and multi-generational silences that often stem from trauma.

Using personal photos, objects, and memory, you’ll write drafts of poetry, prose, monologue & more.

This writing generative workshop will explore the grandmothers we are descended from, the grandmothers we are, or grandmothers who have influenced us through fairy tale and myth. Using personal photos, objects, and memory, you’ll write drafts of poetry, prose, monologue & more. You’ll write to probe and break generational silences. You’ll celebrate and explore longing and mixed feelings, expressing the complex influences of grandmothers on our lives in any genre of creative writing. 

Why this matters:

"Grandma, come back, I forgot/how much lard for these rolls"––Carolyn Forche’s poem, "The Morning Baking," is a direct address to her dead grandmother that evokes a universal longing we all experience, and confronts the limits of memory. Grandmothers are powerful subjects for poetry and creative writing, as they illuminate and shadow our personal and cultural identities and family history.

We will read a variety of grandmother-themed poems that reveal multi-cultural grandmothers, and discuss how we can use innovative craft to reveal grandmothers who have influenced us. In writing about grandmothers, we discover longings, unpack family secrets, break cultural and multi-generational silences that often stem from trauma.

Writers will reveal powerful stories of women's lives and roles that are historically de-valued.

We face challenges of seeing beyond cultural stereotypes. How do we leap beyond sentimentality to grapple with shifting cultural expectations? We’ll explore poems that excavate and expand on our experience of “grandmother” to reveal and respond to their influences and legacies. Writing prompts will be given, participants will have time to write and share writing. TLA practitioners of all kinds will find value in probing the influence of grandmothers on personal identity.

Week by Week

Four week workshops involve this weekly structure: 

1) Presentation of exceptional grandmother poems (other creative writing) from other cultures 

2) Thematic Discussion (cultural & historic role of grandmother, stereotypes, silences)

3) Starting in the 2nd week, participants share short pieces of writing they are developing

4) Generative Prompt based on some aspects of grandmother, often sharing photos, personal objects or family archive

5) Creative writing time (20 minutes)

6) Sharing & discussion, ideas for development and appreciations of what is shared

7) (Optional: the four week course may end in a free Zoom reading with invited participants to hear the writing about grandmothers participants have generated)

Who Should Take This Class

This is a personal growth & creative writing experience that benefits TLAN practitioners of the spoken, written and sung word. Storytellers will gain new material about family history & culture. Creative writers will gain insight & imagination, will embrace poetry and prose craft and revision elements; singers, playwrights will create new writing. Therapists and healing arts professionals will gain insight into the cultural and multi-generational silences and silencing of grandmothers and learn the power of the grandmother role. Individuals will gain a greater sense of personal identity and integration of the grandmother influence on their lives.

If cost is a barrier, we offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

What former students have to say:

After our class was completed and Kelly helped us polish our monologues, created a Monologue Showcase and produced it. The professional actors and writers who read our scripts were outstanding. We were allowed to invite our friends to the Showcase with Zoom invites and had a great turn out with much praise. Some of my fellow writers asked about the class after watching the Showcase. For writers, having our memoir scripts performed and interpreted by actors was emotional and thrilling. Kelly DuMar and TLA Network did a wonderful thing by acknowledging the work we had done in class with this positive and rewarding event.  

Thanks again. I look forward to more classes with Kelly and TLA Network.

With Gratitude,

—Laura Engel

Working with Kelly DuMar is a pleasure. She is the epitome of professionalism with a big heart and a wealth of knowledge about how to write monologues and plays. 

Kelly gives the right mix of information and inspiration. She creates safe space and models how to give positive feedback (“What’s working?”) before soliciting ideas about how a monologue might be more effective. Each participant is treated with respect and care as a writer and as a human being. 

I have participated in two of Kelly’s monologue workshops. The first time, I wrote about a personal experience. In the second, I wrote about a historical event. I find writing monologues challenging and inspiring. Listening to an actor bring your character to light is edifying and illuminating. I have enjoyed working with other participants and seeing their monologues develop over the course of the workshop. We learn from each other as well as Kelly. I highly recommend the experience. 

—Leslie Neustadt 

Thank you for a transformative experience. This exercise has opened new layers for my narrative and poetry. It was performed brilliantly by Liz Rose in a and I really take her comments to heart. Showed how a hybrid narrative could be shaped. Like I said in the chat, it made the writing on the page a sensory experience that a writer can't really reach in their own head. I'm so glad that audience could experience the space where words fall short. 

—Deborah Garcia

Format

This is an online class held through four Zoom meetings: Wednesday, October 15, 22, 29 and Nov. 5, 2025 from 7-9 PM ET (12-2 AM UTC) (convert your time zone)

About the Teacher

Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from Boston. She’s author of four poetry collections, including jinx and heavenly calling, published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2023. Her poems and images are published in Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Thrush, Glassworks, Flock, One Art, and more. Kelly teaches a variety of creative writing workshops, in person and online, and she teaches Play Labs for the International Women’s Writing Guild and the Transformative Language Arts Network. A former psychotherapist, and a certified psychodramatist, one of Kelly’s passions is facilitating expressive arts related support groups for psychologists/therapists in war zones, currently including Ukraine, since the start of the war in 2022, and Israel, since the start of the war following Oct. 7, 2023. A passionate promoter of writing communities, Kelly produces the Featured Open Mic for the Journal of Expressive Writing. Reach her at kellydumar.com